Waikiki Beuradeoseu begins, somewhat aimlessly, with a band of musicians, middle-aged and in a sort of midlife crisis. The four members of the Waikiki Brothers play songs they don’t like at events and places (small weddings, third-rate clubs) where they do not wish to be. The gigs are underpaid, barely allowing them to scrape by, and audiences could not care less about the group performing on the stage. It is far from the dream that the (original) Brothers had in mind twenty, thirty years ago when they first screamed their voices hoarse at school assemblies, trying to impress teenage girls. Continue reading →

The Korean Cultural Centre in London (aka the KCCUK) gave Korean cinephiles a special treat in 2012 with the Year of 12 Directors: one Korean director for every month of the year, four screenings (most of them free) for each filmmaker, with a bonus for the final session: a Q&A event with the director of that month flown in straight from South Korea.

There is one particular problem with Moojeokja, a remake of John Woo’s 英雄本色 (Yīngxióng běnsè/A Better Tomorrow, Hong Kong, 1986): it is an action film made by a director that is in reality only interested in sentimental melodramas. Continue reading →

It’s the final month of the KCCUK‘s Year of 12 Directors (and, yes, it’s already more than half-gone-by). I don’t really want to believe it either, for one because it means 2012 is nearly over but also because what in the world will we be doing on Thursday evenings starting from January on? I’m hoping the KCCUK will still organise some film screenings, but I’m guessing it won’t be quite as many as this year.

As for December: It’s Lim Soon-rye (임순례, sometimes also romanised as Yim or even Im Soon-rye) who is the final director of the year, and she’s also the only woman in the line-up – a reflection of that female directors in South Korea are still rather limited in number.* Continue reading →

December, December… the year is coming to an end and at least in this part of the world people are sort of busy with Christmassy things. This also means that there is relatively little going on in terms of film festivals and film screenings. I couldn’t find much at least – do give me a heads up if you see anything I missed or if you hear about any new events being organised.

I am still in Dublin and loving the Irish (so unlike grumpy, I-won’t-talk-to-you-even-if-you’re-standing-right-next-to-me Londoners!). And loving the Japanese too, because somehow quite a few of them turned up at the conference I was at. Given that it was a small postgraduate event that was unusual as these are normally only attended by people geographically placed in the same region. So, quite unexpectedly, I walked away with several めいし, invitations to visit Nagoya and Tokyo (and Dublin again) and some words added to my J-vocab. Plus, apparently I’m kawaii. 😀

November is here and I want some fog pretty please. And snow for my birthday – that’s on top of my wish list every year, but in this country it’s always a wish unfulfilled (in my native one, sometimes I get lucky, sometimes I don’t).

Events are winding down a bit after the super-intense month of October (Raindance, BFI Festival, Scotland Loves Anime, etc.)… or maybe it’s just because I’ll be missing out on some of them that the month doesn’t feel quite as overwhelming, for quite a few events are scheduled, including the ever-bigger London Korean Film Festival and the Leeds International Film Festival.

Note 1: This page will be updated as more information becomes available. If you see anything I have missed, do alert me to it!

Note 2: This month’s Events image is inspired by 우리들의 행복한 시간 (Woorideuleui Haengbokhan Sigan/Maundy Thursday aka Our Happy Time, 2006), which will be screening at the KCCUK. Originally a Korean novel, it became a (Japanese) manga (「私たちの幸せな時間」/Watashi-tachi no Shiawase na Jikan, 2007, by Sahara Mizu aka Yumeka Sumomo) as well as the Korean film.

In the post-screening Q&A the film’s director, Jeon Kyu-hwan, noted that what lies at the heart of Varanasi is a wish to expose hypocrisy, the hypocrisy in human behaviour that permeates our realities. Hypocrisy it is indeed when a married man that has been having an affair with one of his protégées at work for months reprimands his wife after she miscarries the child she was pregnant with in a terrorist attack committed by her own lover. Continue reading →

The film festival season gets into full swing (this month’s cover image should give you a visual impression of the deluge of films coming our way): Raindance continues, the madness of the UK’s biggest film event – the London International Film Festival – descends upon the capital, to be followed by the most comprehensive Im Kwon-Taek season that we have probably ever seen in this country, while J-animation fans get their fix up north at Scotland Loves Anime. Let’s hope we’ll all still be breathing when the month is over!

Note: This page will be updated as more information becomes available. If you see anything I have missed, do alert me to it!

Well, here’s another benefit of having recently become a BFI member: their monthly guide came tumbling through the mail box this dreary-wet morning with details on an upcoming Im Kwon-Taek season.

We had some vague knowledge about this already as it has been listed on the programme for the KCCUK’s Year of 12 Directors since the beginning of the year, but now follow the details: eight film screenings plus a special “Im Kwon-Taek in Conversation” event at the BFI plus seven films at the ICA. Continue reading →

Ever so often when I watch a film, the narrative unfolding on the screen skips a beat: something is hushed over or ignored in a way that doesn’t realistically reflect life. Characters, for example, end up confined in some space for days but somehow the issue that there is no toilet never seems to come up. Or certain moments – like the moment after a couple has sex – are glossed over. Gaps of this sort may be to trim off bits that are not essential and to keep a tight storyline, however, too often it simply feels that directors take the easy way out, omitting what is too awkward or simply too mundane to show, leading, in the worst of cases, to lapses in the film’s narrative logic. Continue reading →

September means that the film festival season is starting, with the Zipangu Fest and the Raindance Independent Film Festival kicking off first. There are of course festivals all year round, however, it just seems that autumn brings particularly many and particularly big ones in short succession of one another. It’s a busy time for us Asian and world film lovers.

If you attended the screening for August director Lee Yoon-ki’s 사랑한다, 사랑하지 않는다 (Saranghanda, Saranghaji Anhneunda/Come Rain Come Shine, South Korea, 2011) on Thursday night, you will have already had a taster of the K-director of September: a trailer for Jeon Kyu-hwan’s 바라나시 (Varanasi aka From Seoul to Varanasi, South Korea, 2011) preceded the screening and gave a glimpse of what this coming month holds in store. Like myself, you might have been equally awestruck about how much emotion a completely dialogue-less trailer of 2:30 min evoked already, hinting at a craftsman who knows his game and promising a rewarding month ahead for London film fans. Continue reading →

I am away in India all this month, so you will have to enjoy these screenings for me. Apologies for the post being a day late – it does mean some events are over already – but airplanes still are lacking behind in offering internet services (heck, didn’t I even have a power point at my seat!).

There doesn’t seem to be all that much on at the moment. I guess the Olympics are entertainment enough? But I think this bit of ‘cinematic quiet’ is not all that bad as September and especially October will bring a deluge of film festivals, including some of the UK’s biggest.

UPDATE 2/8/2012: Might have to eat my own words – at least for fans of terror and horror, all kinds of things are being screened.

Juuuuust posting this in time before Sunday is over – I had nearly finished the Trailer Weekly a few hours ago, but then a Japanese friend of mine came for dinner and I was (happily) distracted for a while, enjoying lovely company and yum food (oven grilled summer veg from the farmers’ market + couscous with sour cherries and pistachios + Korean style edamame & cucumber salad + cherries + Greek coffee).

This week’s Trailer Weekly begins with lots of USAmericana (including some big budget films), but trailers from Japan and Korea follow as well.

As August arrives and the world comes to London for the Olympics, so does the cinematic vision of Lee Yoon-ki, the KCCUK’s director of the month. Like always, there are four film screenings to look forward to, which I am all going to miss out on except the last one (I will be out of country). That last one – 사랑한다, 사랑하지 않는다 (Saranghanda, Saranghaji Anhneunda/Come Rain Come Shine, 2011) – I have been wanting to see so much that I gave up on an extra week or two that I could have still spent away and booked my return flight to arrive, just in time, the day before the screening plus Q&A. Yes, that’s the extent of my K-film addiction.

Geudaeanui Beulru isn’t the kind of film that is instantly likeable. You will most probably find yourself feeling lost in its first 15-20 minutes, which are a fast-paced flash of bright images, often oddly monochrome – not, as one might initially presume, because the film’s physical quality has decayed over time. As little is explained and no narrative thread is yet obvious (even if the same faces repeat on the screen), what is happening – and where it is all going – is not clear at all. Only when Yurim (Kang Soo-yeon) moves in with Hoseok (Ahn Seong-gi), does a storyline begin to emerge.

This month starts off with a bang as several festivals continue and others are about to commence. It gets a bit quieter towards the middle and end of July, but perhaps that’s not to compete too much withOlympics? Well, that’s the rationale we can make for London at least. Continue reading →

It’s the final lines of Wangeui Namja that best sum up the film: All the world’s a stage. Date-wise the Shakespearean quote is a little misplaced, given that the setting of Wangeui Namja is the early 16th century Joseon, but As You LikeIt, where it is taken from,was written around 1599 or 1600. That said, the metaphor very likely preceded the Bard of Avon, if not in exact words than at least in its conceptual form. Continue reading →

NOTE: This post has been updated (10-05-2012) as the one of the films planned for May 10th has been added to the May 24th screening (due to refurbishment of the KCCUK I believe). The screening of A Perfect Day (no further information is available on this film, but I presume it is a short) seems to have been cancelled.